A 30-year-old Daly City man is facing felony vandalism charges after San Mateo police say he cut power lines at multiple homes and then tried to hide the wire cutters under a water meter cover before officers arrived. Alfredo Salas was arrested Monday following what investigators are calling a wire-cutting spree that left extensive damage across several properties near the 100 block of 29th Avenue.
According to the San Mateo Police Department, officers responded to a report of a suspicious person involved in vandalism in the neighborhood. Police say Salas severed multiple power lines directly in front of a reporting resident's home, and additional wires were later found cut within a water meter at the scene. Officers recovered the wire cutters after determining Salas had attempted to conceal the tool beneath the meter cover, according to the department's account.
Investigators say photos and video footage reviewed by officers showed a male suspect cutting the power lines in front of the residence just before his arrest, as reported by San Mateo Patch. That kind of resident-captured footage has become a common first line of evidence in suburban property crime cases, and it appears to have played a central role in establishing probable cause here.
No Clear Motive, Several Properties Hit
Police reported that several other locations in the area also had wires cut during the same incident, though the department has not specified exactly how many homes were affected or released a dollar estimate for the damage. The Patch report similarly notes that authorities did not immediately provide a total damage figure or a full count of impacted properties, leaving those numbers likely to be finalized as utility crews and homeowners assess repairs.
Investigators determined that Salas had no apparent prior relationship or connection to any of the targeted properties, according to the Patch report. That detail leaves the motive behind the string of cuts an open question, complicating what would otherwise look like a straightforward property dispute.
Felony Vandalism and Evidence-Tampering Charges
Salas was booked on charges of vandalism under California Penal Code Section 594(b)(1) and attempting to conceal evidence under Penal Code Section 135. Vandalism becomes a felony under state law once the maliciously caused damage totals $400 or more, a threshold that carries penalties of up to one year in county jail or state prison and fines as high as $10,000, according to the Esfandi Law Group. The evidence-concealment charge, a misdemeanor under Penal Code 135, applies to anyone who willfully destroys or hides physical evidence knowing it is relevant to an active investigation, and it carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, per Cron Israels and Stark.
Salas was transported to San Mateo County Jail following his arrest. Detainees booked by local municipal departments in the county are typically housed at the Maguire Correctional Facility, a county-run jail at 300 Bradford Street in Redwood City, according to Huff Legal. Salas lives in Daly City, the most populous municipality in San Mateo County, situated at the county's northern edge along the border with San Francisco, per Jail Inmate Search.
Police Lean on Tech and Community Tips
The San Mateo Police Department has said it relies on tools including a Real Time Information Center and a Drone as a First Responder program to support patrol officers responding to active incidents like this one. Those resources are part of a broader push by the department to speed up response times on calls involving property crimes and suspicious activity.
Police are again asking residents to report suspicious activity, whether through non-emergency dispatch or emergency services, under the department's “See Something, Say Something” initiative. The appeal echoes a wider pattern seen across the country: infrastructure vandalism targeting utility and telecommunications wiring caused an estimated $294 million to $1.47 billion in total societal and consumer damage nationwide in 2025, according to a prior Hoodline report on a similar fiber-line vandalism case in Southern California.
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